If a filming project could ever be described as a romantic marathon this ‘Italian Job’ was certainly that. 7,000 miles in seven weeks took our film crew from the Brenner and Simplon Passes to the very tip of Sicily and back through Sardinia, Milan, Florence, Rome, Pisa, Bari, Catania and Caliari are all included with some of the famous sights which provide such a unique backcloth to Italian Railways.

Lines of very different character circumnavigate Vesuvius and Etna. Railways cling to the Adriatic and Tirreno coastlines. The very latest standard gauge trains jostle for space on the screen with narrow gauge vehicles of great charm and antiquity.

From its beginnings in 1839 Italian railways developed as a hotchpotch of private companies. The Italian State Railways were formed in 1905 and the new organisation rapidly began to pioneer three-phase electrification, the remnants of which are visible today.